Why is the poem called ‘Old Tongue’?
It laments the loss of the speaker’s old language
It describes the language of an old woman
It is the name of the speaker’s old sheepdog
Explain the ‘strange thing’ that happens in stanza one.
The speaker loses her suitcase
The speaker loses her baby teeth
The speaker loses her Scottish accent
What sort of words are ‘dreich, wabbit, crabbit’?
Scots words
Gaelic words
Old English words
Why does Kay put the words in italics at the end of stanza one?
To suggest the words are made up
To suggest the words are taken from a famous Scottish poem
To suggest the words are being spoken
What technique does Kay use in ‘to stretch like my bones’?
Metaphor
Simile
Personification
What do the sounds of the words ‘ghastly’ and ‘awful’ have in common?
Alliteration
Long vowels
Assonance
What is the effect of the repetition in ‘my old words, my lost words?’
It emphasises that the words are old
It tells us that she only knew a few words
It emphasises that the words once belonged to the poet
What does ‘like calling in the sea’ imply about the speaker’s attempt to get her words back?
It will take a very long time
It is impossible
It is an easy task
What kind of sentences are ‘My dour soor Scottish tongue. Sing-songy'?
Parallel sentences
Short sentences
Minor sentences
What does the expression ‘gie it laldie’ mean?
To put your energy into something.
To hit something on the head.
To take all day to do something.